King Center Concert Hall at Auraria Campus

Review by Tom Edwards (Switch to
)4/05/2015

Todd was doing a week-long guest artist stint for the music program at CU Denver and the show opened with performances by the students. The eight member a cappella group "MIX" gave breathtaking backup on the first two songs, "Hodja" and "Lost Horizon." What an opening! These songs were so rich and the top-notch acoustics at the King Center made this a dream concert, for sure. A jam with the Mobile Device Ensemble (students on laptops) followed with Todd on the piano and the students contributing a free-form sound on the improv offering. CU music department chair Leslie Gaston-Bird played piano and kazoo on "Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song," always an impressive vocal piece to see performed live. According to Todd, "Emperor of the Highway" had never been performed live until this evening, and it was a real hoot to hear this song close out first part of the show.

From here on it was Mr. Rundgren playing solo guitar and piano on approximately twenty songs spanning his career, plus three covers that he'd performed in The Unpredictable Tour. Todd's voice was at its best and the songs he chose were some of the finest of his career. It was especially nice to see songs like "Black and White", "Cliche" and "Lysistrata" on solo acoustic guitar as this format displays the strength of the songs' compositions as well as Todd's amazing voice. Man, what a night it was! Piano standouts included the always clever "Song of the Viking", "Too Far Gone" and "Past." The last song being wonderfully poignant in its stripped down mode. I could rave on and on about this night, but suffice to say it was a most magical evening for my wife, my sister and I. I've seen about twenty Todd concerts over the past thirty-eight years and this was by far my favorite.

The next day Our Hero gave a two hour interview with CU faculty member and musician extraordinaire Chris Daniels. They talked about Todd's thoughts on the music industry, his process for making music and a host of other things. The crowd was comprised mostly of fans, and I was surprised there weren't more students in the audience. During the interview, Todd took a break to live stream the new "Global" album and he they played a few tracks for us to hear. I'm really psyched about this album and the fact that he'll be back in two weeks here in Colorado. After the Q & A, I presented Todd an honorary PhD on a coffee mug. It's kind of hard to describe it here but you can read all about it at my website in the blog post entitled, "The Sacred Todd Rundgen Sharpie." Check it out: www.wallypots.com